New Seismic Criteria for the Design of Glass Window Shields to Reduce the Damages of Flying Glass

Abstract

Traffic vibrations, damaging windstorms, earthquakes, break-ins, and terrorism explosions cause extensive damage to buildings and property each year, and can even result in death and injury to building occupants and bystanders. Much of this destruction is due to a simple and preventable hazard: flying glass. The objective of this study was to find the most suitable shape, dimensions, thickness, and glass material properties of float glass sheets to be used to manufacture window shields to reduce the risk of death and injury by shattered and flying glass due to seismic, explosion, and traffic vibration waves. It was found that decreasing the dimensions of a certain geometrical shape of glass sheets and keeping all the other properties constant, not always increases the seismic equivalency factor (SEF). Decreasing the dimensions of the rectangular shape from (20x40 cm) to (15x25 cm) decreases the seismic equivalency factor (SEF) from 0.597 to 0.568. Also, decreasing the dimensions of the square shape from (15 cm) to (10 cm) decreases the seismic equivalency factor (SEF) from 2.837 to 1.107. Also, Increasing the thickness of the glass sheet and keeping all the other properties constant, not always increases the seismic equivalency factor (SEF).